Valer Barna-Sabadus was born in Romania and moved
to Germany at the age of five. Here he received his musical education,
and made his debut when he was 21 years old. Since then he has built
up a career in which he concentrates on baroque opera. That is why he
saw this project of vocal chamber music by English composers as a challenge.
However, in the programme of this disc he doesn't move that far away
from opera. The songs he has selected are often quite close to 17th
century opera, and in many ways reflect the ideals of speech-like singing
as it was propagated by the likes of Giulio Caccini.

It is remarkable that these pieces are performed in a chronologically
reversed order. It starts with Purcell, and then moves backwards in
the 17th century with Poole, Matteis and Dowland. Although there is
a clear difference in style, there are also strong similarities in that
pieces with a declamatory character dominate. As far as Purcell is concerned,
that is especially the case in Sweeter than roses which is from
his theatre music for Pausanias. Other songs, like If music
be the food of love and Oh Solitude are also in a free recitativic
style. She loves and she confesses too is based on a basso
ostinato, a very popular form in 17th-century Italy.

Most songs by Dowland are specimens of the strophic lute song, which
is not an exclusively English genre, but more popular there in the decades
around 1600 than elsewhere in Europe. The basso continuo had not made
its appearance in England yet, and the accompaniment was exclusively
for the lute. Even so, in some of his songs Dowland showed that he was
very well aware of the latest trends in Italian music. We hear two examples,
I saw my lady weep and the famous Flow my tears. These
are not directly comparable with Italian monody, but are more declamatory
than many of Dowland's songs.

The most interesting part of this disc, as far as the repertoire is
concerned, are the songs by Nicola Matteis. He was born in Naples and
settled in England around 1670. He was one of the first Italian composers
to emigrate to England and would be followed by many after the turn
of the century. He was a virtuosic violinist and surprised his audiences
with his playing on this instrument, which at that time was relatively
new to English audiences. He published four books of violin pieces,
but also some collections of songs which are hardly known. These are
on English texts, but in a purely Italian style and quite expressive.
The specimens on this disc suggest that his songs deserve to be explored.
They could well be an interesting alternative to the frequently-performed
English repertoire from this period.

With his experience in opera one may expect Barna-Sabadus to make the
most of this repertoire. That is exactly what he does. He has a beautiful
voice with a pleasantly warm timbre and a remarkably wide range. Some
songs include high notes - Matteis's When I Corinna's pity would
implore even begins with one - which he sings with notable ease
and perfection. One could probably criticize him in that he tends to
sing the highest notes always rather loudly. Sometimes they could be
sung with less power. Whether that is a technical issue or a matter
of interpretation is hard to say. With a more 'open' voice the texts
would also be easier to understand. Even so, his delivery is quite good
and so is his pronunciation. Barna-Sabadus is probably a bit too restrained
in the ornamentation department. In Dowland's Come again I found
some of his ornaments rather odd. What is most important, though, is
that the emotion which is expressed in the various pieces, is impressively
conveyed.

The instrumentalists give excellent support and deliver some nice solo
pieces to boot. Axel Wolf gives a good account of Dowland's Lachrimae
Pavan, the lute version of Flow my tears. Especially interesting
is S. Justinas, a series of divisions for viola da gamba. The
most prominent composer of such pieces at the time was Christopher Simpson.
This particular piece was composed by Anthony Poole, about whom very
little is known. He may be identical with a person of that name who
was educated at the English College in Rome in the late 1640s and became
a Jesuit in 1658. The title of this piece seems to point in that direction,
although its meaning is impossible to explain with any certainty. The
fact that his compositions circulated in manuscript, also on the continent,
suggests that they were well appreciated. That is understandable, if
one listens to this particular piece, which is given an engaging performance
by Pavel Serbin. Olga Watts plays a short piece, one of the many transcriptions
of songs in Purcell's oeuvre.

The singing by Valer Barna-Sabadus and the playing by the instrumentalists
results in a highly compelling recital of gems from 17th-century England.